John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have three more questions, including one for the Minister of State. There were discussions between the Minister and the Minister for public expenditure that bordered on the friendly and combative, I am sure. Will the Minister give a flavour of those, even if it is just for colour? He is a man who would clearly dig his heels in.

On a subject close to my heart, I chair a cross-party group on new drugs and rare diseases. There is a concern that there is no increase in the allocation for new drugs. Will the Minister comment on that?

The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, kindly visited Bloomfield hospital in my constituency, which is a centre of excellence for dementia and dealing with rare diseases such as Huntingdon's disease. She will be very well aware of the disease. There is some concern about budgets for next year. There are big costs but a lot of progress has been made. Can the Minister of State provide some assurance on that?